SEMANTIC SUPPORT FOR DYNAMIC CHANGES IN ENTERPRISE BUSINESS MODELS

Abstract

This paper proposes the Dynamic Enterprise Business Model (DEBMod) framework, which supports the management of changes within enterprises, affected by various internal and external factors that play an important role in the shaping of their business models. We assess the feasibility of the framework's implementation by designing an intelligent computing environment, built around ontological concepts and reasoning upon them. The semantics stored in DEBMod is transferred into the Dynamic Enterprise Business Model Ontology (DEBMO). Through reasoning rules we assess the possible dynamic change(s) of the business model and give recommendations for its improvement, that show which factors have influenced the model and which factors become essential in retaining the enterprise's sustainable competitive advantage. The implementation of the DEBMO environment is based on an OWL ontology, which uses OWL 2.0 modeling constructs and SWRL reasoning rules. It is feasible to build a full scale software application upon the DEBMO ontological concepts which may fully automate the support of business model changes within any enterprise.